Michael Curnes
■ FOUNDER OPERATOR
I help uncommon builders turn hard-won ideas into lasting companies without losing themselves
I help uncommon builders turn hard-won ideas into lasting companies without losing themselves
I help uncommon builders turn hard-won ideas into lasting companies without losing themselves
Strategic coaching and advisory for founders ready to level up.
Strategic coaching and advisory for founders ready to level up.
Strategic coaching and advisory for founders ready to level up.
Get in touch
■ WHAT IS AN UNCOMMON FOUNDER?
Uncommon founders don’t fit the mould
Uncommon founders don’t fit the mould
Uncommon founders don’t fit the mould
They don’t all look and sound alike. They’re not a particular gender, demographic or background. What makes them uncommon is that they are, or aspire to be:
They don’t all look and sound alike. They’re not a particular gender, demographic or background. What makes them uncommon is that they are, or aspire to be:
1
Visionary builders determined
to change the world
Visionary builders determined
to change the world
2
Thoughtful technologists
focused on purposeful impact
Thoughtful technologists
focused on purposeful impact
3
Independent thinkers playing their own game,
not everyone else’s
Independent thinkers playing their own game,
not everyone else’s
■ HOW DO I HELP?
The world is yearning for more uncommon founders. To build the thing that people talk about for decades to come. The thing we couldn’t even imagine and then couldn’t live without. The thing the world needs.
And to do it their own way.
I know they have what it takes, but so often they get in their own way. Inside their own head. Knocked off course. Limited by the things they unknowingly hold to be true. Burnt out. Caught in conflict. Or just bogged down in the wrong things.
That’s where I come in.
The world is yearning for more uncommon founders. To build the thing that people talk about for decades to come. The thing we couldn’t even imagine and then couldn’t live without. The thing the world needs.
And to do it their own way.
I know they have what it takes, but so often they get in their own way. Inside their own head. Knocked off course. Limited by the things they unknowingly hold to be true. Burnt out. Caught in conflict. Or just bogged down in the wrong things.
That’s where I come in.
The world is yearning for more uncommon founders. To build the thing that people talk about for decades to come. The thing we couldn’t even imagine and then couldn’t live without. The thing the world needs.
And to do it their own way.
I know they have what it takes, but so often they get in their own way. Inside their own head. Knocked off course. Limited by the things they unknowingly hold to be true. Burnt out. Caught in conflict. Or just bogged down in the wrong things.
That’s where I come in.
Michael Curnes
Founder operator and advisor
■ DEFINING SUCCESS
Each client has a different idea of success
Each client has a different idea of success
Each client has a different idea of success
GOAL 1
I want to better understand the game I’m playing and how to play it well.
GOAL 2
I’ve got so many priorities in and out of work that whichever I choose feels wrong.
GOAL 3
We’re building such an innovative product, do we get to build an innovative company?
GOAL 4
I just don’t want to wear the mask any more.
GOAL 5
I’m bogged down in the wrong things.
GOAL 1
I want to better understand the game I’m playing and how to play it well.
GOAL 2
I’ve got so many priorities in and out of work that whichever I choose feels wrong.
GOAL 3
We’re building such an innovative product, do we get to build an innovative company?
GOAL 4
I just don’t want to wear the mask any more.
GOAL 5
I’m bogged down in the wrong things.
GOAL 9
I see my role as being a centre of gravity for capital and talent.
GOAL 10
I’m so much more creative than I show to others.
GOAL 11
I just want to level up. It’s like a video game and I’m coming up against the final boss.
GOAL 12
There are just the unknown unknowns. I know I need to grow.
GOAL 13
There’s so much noise that I feel like I just need to insulate myself from it.
GOAL 9
I see my role as being a centre of gravity for capital and talent.
GOAL 10
I’m so much more creative than I show to others.
GOAL 11
I just want to level up. It’s like a video game and I’m coming up against the final boss.
GOAL 12
There are just the unknown unknowns. I know I need to grow.
GOAL 13
There’s so much noise that I feel like I just need to insulate myself from it.
■ FIELD NOTES
Field notes on consumer anthropology, food, culture, business, and more
Field notes on consumer anthropology, food, culture, business, and more
Field notes on consumer anthropology, food, culture, business, and more
Field-Note-001
How do people interpret others symbolically but themselves pragmatically?
We are often quick to notice what other people’s choices might mean. A watch can suggest status. A car can suggest ambition. A jacket can suggest belonging. Our own choices, of course, usually feel more practical. We know the context behind them. That difference is worth noticing. People experience our choices from the outside, just as we experience theirs. Whether we intend it or not, the things we choose are always saying something.
Expand
Field-Note-003
Is taste primarily a money problem, an awareness problem, or a search problem?
Taste is easy to confuse with spending power. They are not the same thing. Money can expand the field of options, but it does not decide what deserves attention. Often, the more interesting question is where someone has learned to look. A small restaurant with no publicity. An old jacket that keeps getting better. An object that simply feels right. Taste grows through attention, curiosity, and the willingness to keep looking.
Expand
Field-Note-005
When does a product become a story rather than a feature set?
A product becomes more than a feature set when people can place part of themselves inside it. A bracelet can hold memory. A jacket can signal belonging. A familiar object can carry protection, romance, rebellion, or proof of a chapter lived. Features explain usefulness. Story creates meaning. The strongest products often do both, giving people a reason to choose them and a reason to care when they are gone.
Expand
Field-Note-007
When is a roadmap operational, and when is it narrative infrastructure?
A roadmap is more than a calendar. It is an argument about sequence. It shows what comes first, what depends on what, and where evidence needs to appear before the next commitment is made. A list of wishes with dates attached does not create much confidence. A thoughtful sequence can. The future remains uncertain, but the roadmap gives others a way to understand how the team is thinking about it.
Expand
Field-Note-009
Is perception management a core founder task equal to product development?
Perception is easy to dismiss as decoration, especially when the product is still taking shape. But early on, trust often arrives before certainty. Customers, investors, hires, and partners are evaluating what exists today and what they believe the team can make true tomorrow. That does not require hype. It requires clarity, consistency, and the ability to make a credible promise before every answer is known. In early-stage work, shaping that belief is part of the job.
Expand
Field-Note-011
When is being solo a weakness, and when is it a signal of force?
Being a solo founder is not automatically a weakness. The larger question is whether the work shows focus. One person can create confidence through cadence, judgment, discipline, and visible progress. A small team can be an advantage when decisions stay clear and momentum remains visible. The challenge is not size by itself. It is whether the business becomes easier to understand and more credible with each step forward.
Expand
Field-Note-013
How often is “better execution” actually better temporal positioning?
Better execution is not always better skill. Sometimes it is better timing. Two firms can see the same market and reach different conclusions because they are working on different clocks. One sees danger. Another sees a temporary spread. One sees noise. Another sees a signal that matters six months from now. Advantage often comes from matching the right horizon to the right opportunity.
Expand
Field-Note-015
Is novelty often just recomposed memory?
Much of what feels new is familiar material placed in a better frame. Strong lifestyle brands understand this. The customer does not always want to be shocked. Often, they want recognition with a little distance from the original. A color, silhouette, ritual, or memory returns with a different context and suddenly feels current again. Novelty often begins with knowing what deserves to be remembered.
Expand
Field-Note-017
Which food trends are aesthetic, operational, economic, or identity-driven?
Food trends are rarely only about taste. A new café format, regional dish, wine bar, bakery, chef persona, or night-market hybrid can reveal changes in rent, tourism, labor, class, design, and aspiration. Restaurants give those forces a physical address. They are places where economics becomes visible, culture gets tested, and changing identities sit down at the same table.
Expand
Field-Note-019
What forms of discipline do founders accept without feeling constrained?
Founders rarely need less energy. They need containers that help energy travel farther. Vision, speed, charisma, and obsession can create momentum, but they can also create noise when nothing gives them sequence. Good support turns energy into cadence: clearer priorities, sharper GTM decisions, better milestones, and more useful updates. The challenge is to add structure without removing the sense of ownership that made the founder effective in the first place.
Expand
Field-Note-021
Is practicality sometimes a shield against desire?
Practicality is often real. It can also protect us from naming what we want. A budget, schedule, or constraint may be completely valid while still sitting beside aspiration. People can know what they can justify and still imagine something beyond it. Markets often form in that tension, between the life someone can explain today and the life they are beginning to picture.
Expand
Field-Note-002
How much of taste is suppressed by money, time, access, or awareness?
People sometimes say they do not care about taste. That may be true. But sometimes the real issue is access. No one showed them where to look, what to notice, or how to explore without feeling out of place. Preference can stay quiet when time is short, money is tight, or the search feels intimidating. Give people better access, better language, and permission to explore, and taste often begins to reveal itself.
Expand
Field-Note-004
How does customer identity precede acquisition strategy?
Before acquisition, there is recognition. People want to see some version of themselves in what they choose. A customer may be buying coffee, software, jewelry, clothing, or advice, but the purchase often carries a second question: does this fit the person I am becoming? Funnels matter. Distribution matters. But they work better when the person comes first. Understand who they want to become, then make the path toward that identity easier to recognize.
Expand
Field-Note-006
What execution signals matter more than technical expertise in investor evaluation?
Investors cannot always evaluate every part of the engine directly. So they look for signals around it. Does the team ship? Does it learn? Does it follow through? Can it turn uncertainty into a next step? Do customer conversations improve the work? Perfection is rarely the signal. Progress with judgment is. Confidence grows when people can see that the founder makes the business clearer, more focused, and more real over time.
Expand
Field-Note-008
How personal should a founder narrative be before it stops scaling?
A founder’s personal story can be powerful, but only when it helps other people see the problem more clearly. The story is not the product. It is a lens. Pain, history, taste, and obsession matter when they explain why the founder notices something others have missed. A biography tells us what happened. A useful founder narrative tells us what that experience made possible to see. That is where a personal story begins to scale.
Expand
Field-Note-010
How much investor confidence is created by market logic rather than product proof?
Proof matters, but proof becomes more convincing when people understand the logic around it. A prototype, a few customers, or early traction can show that something is working. Market logic helps explain whether it can keep working. Why this buyer? Why now? Why this entry point? Why this team? Those questions connect evidence to possibility. They help turn isolated wins into a story about where the business can go next.
Expand
Field-Note-012
Which services are credible enough to price on outcomes?
Outcome-based pricing changes the relationship. The conversation moves away from hours, meetings, and activity toward a simpler question: what changed? That can create alignment, but only when the work allows it. The seller needs enough control to influence the result, enough measurement to prove it, and enough trust to survive ambiguity. Otherwise, every invoice becomes a negotiation. Outcome pricing works best when both sides can name victory before the work begins.
Expand
Field-Note-014
How does tradition stay alive without becoming a costume?
Tradition stays alive when people can still use it. The challenge is not to preserve every detail exactly as it was, nor to discard the past in pursuit of novelty. It is to understand the code beneath the surface. A jacket, chair, room, logo, or ritual can carry inheritance without becoming a museum piece. Good reinterpretation keeps the memory intact while giving it somewhere new to go.
Expand
Field-Note-016
When does a local fashion brand become a city symbol?
A local object becomes a city symbol when people use it to recognize one another. A tote bag, cap, jacket, or restaurant shirt can become a small passport for belonging. The brand succeeds because it gives form to a feeling that already existed. It does not invent the city’s identity. It makes that identity visible enough to carry in public.
Expand
Field-Note-018
What does a guest buy besides the meal?
A guest buys more than dinner. They also buy atmosphere, privacy, romance, rhythm, recognition, and sometimes a temporary version of themselves. The food matters, but the room begins speaking before the first plate arrives. Every restaurant quietly answers a question for the guest: who can I be here? The best ones make the answer feel natural.
Expand
Field-Note-020
How much reasoning is post-purchase narrative?
The reasons people give for a purchase are not always the reasons that started it. Utility may be part of the story, but belonging, status, control, identity, or desire can arrive earlier and speak more quietly. Later, the rational mind finds language that sounds respectable. That does not make the customer dishonest. It makes buying human. Good strategy listens to both explanations.
Expand
Field-Note-001
How do people interpret others symbolically but themselves pragmatically?
We are often quick to notice what other people’s choices might mean. A watch can suggest status. A car can suggest ambition. A jacket can suggest belonging. Our own choices, of course, usually feel more practical. We know the context behind them. That difference is worth noticing. People experience our choices from the outside, just as we experience theirs. Whether we intend it or not, the things we choose are always saying something.
Expand
Field-Note-002
How much of taste is suppressed by money, time, access, or awareness?
People sometimes say they do not care about taste. That may be true. But sometimes the real issue is access. No one showed them where to look, what to notice, or how to explore without feeling out of place. Preference can stay quiet when time is short, money is tight, or the search feels intimidating. Give people better access, better language, and permission to explore, and taste often begins to reveal itself.
Expand
Field-Note-003
Is taste primarily a money problem, an awareness problem, or a search problem?
Taste is easy to confuse with spending power. They are not the same thing. Money can expand the field of options, but it does not decide what deserves attention. Often, the more interesting question is where someone has learned to look. A small restaurant with no publicity. An old jacket that keeps getting better. An object that simply feels right. Taste grows through attention, curiosity, and the willingness to keep looking.
Expand
Field-Note-004
How does customer identity precede acquisition strategy?
Before acquisition, there is recognition. People want to see some version of themselves in what they choose. A customer may be buying coffee, software, jewelry, clothing, or advice, but the purchase often carries a second question: does this fit the person I am becoming? Funnels matter. Distribution matters. But they work better when the person comes first. Understand who they want to become, then make the path toward that identity easier to recognize.
Expand
Field-Note-005
When does a product become a story rather than a feature set?
A product becomes more than a feature set when people can place part of themselves inside it. A bracelet can hold memory. A jacket can signal belonging. A familiar object can carry protection, romance, rebellion, or proof of a chapter lived. Features explain usefulness. Story creates meaning. The strongest products often do both, giving people a reason to choose them and a reason to care when they are gone.
Expand
Field-Note-006
What execution signals matter more than technical expertise in investor evaluation?
Investors cannot always evaluate every part of the engine directly. So they look for signals around it. Does the team ship? Does it learn? Does it follow through? Can it turn uncertainty into a next step? Do customer conversations improve the work? Perfection is rarely the signal. Progress with judgment is. Confidence grows when people can see that the founder makes the business clearer, more focused, and more real over time.
Expand
Field-Note-007
When is a roadmap operational, and when is it narrative infrastructure?
A roadmap is more than a calendar. It is an argument about sequence. It shows what comes first, what depends on what, and where evidence needs to appear before the next commitment is made. A list of wishes with dates attached does not create much confidence. A thoughtful sequence can. The future remains uncertain, but the roadmap gives others a way to understand how the team is thinking about it.
Expand
Field-Note-008
How personal should a founder narrative be before it stops scaling?
A founder’s personal story can be powerful, but only when it helps other people see the problem more clearly. The story is not the product. It is a lens. Pain, history, taste, and obsession matter when they explain why the founder notices something others have missed. A biography tells us what happened. A useful founder narrative tells us what that experience made possible to see. That is where a personal story begins to scale.
Expand
Field-Note-009
Is perception management a core founder task equal to product development?
Perception is easy to dismiss as decoration, especially when the product is still taking shape. But early on, trust often arrives before certainty. Customers, investors, hires, and partners are evaluating what exists today and what they believe the team can make true tomorrow. That does not require hype. It requires clarity, consistency, and the ability to make a credible promise before every answer is known. In early-stage work, shaping that belief is part of the job.
Expand
Field-Note-010
How much investor confidence is created by market logic rather than product proof?
Proof matters, but proof becomes more convincing when people understand the logic around it. A prototype, a few customers, or early traction can show that something is working. Market logic helps explain whether it can keep working. Why this buyer? Why now? Why this entry point? Why this team? Those questions connect evidence to possibility. They help turn isolated wins into a story about where the business can go next.
Expand
Field-Note-011
When is being solo a weakness, and when is it a signal of force?
Being a solo founder is not automatically a weakness. The larger question is whether the work shows focus. One person can create confidence through cadence, judgment, discipline, and visible progress. A small team can be an advantage when decisions stay clear and momentum remains visible. The challenge is not size by itself. It is whether the business becomes easier to understand and more credible with each step forward.
Expand
Field-Note-012
Which services are credible enough to price on outcomes?
Outcome-based pricing changes the relationship. The conversation moves away from hours, meetings, and activity toward a simpler question: what changed? That can create alignment, but only when the work allows it. The seller needs enough control to influence the result, enough measurement to prove it, and enough trust to survive ambiguity. Otherwise, every invoice becomes a negotiation. Outcome pricing works best when both sides can name victory before the work begins.
Expand
Field-Note-013
How often is “better execution” actually better temporal positioning?
Better execution is not always better skill. Sometimes it is better timing. Two firms can see the same market and reach different conclusions because they are working on different clocks. One sees danger. Another sees a temporary spread. One sees noise. Another sees a signal that matters six months from now. Advantage often comes from matching the right horizon to the right opportunity.
Expand
Field-Note-014
How does tradition stay alive without becoming a costume?
Tradition stays alive when people can still use it. The challenge is not to preserve every detail exactly as it was, nor to discard the past in pursuit of novelty. It is to understand the code beneath the surface. A jacket, chair, room, logo, or ritual can carry inheritance without becoming a museum piece. Good reinterpretation keeps the memory intact while giving it somewhere new to go.
Expand
Field-Note-015
Is novelty often just recomposed memory?
Much of what feels new is familiar material placed in a better frame. Strong lifestyle brands understand this. The customer does not always want to be shocked. Often, they want recognition with a little distance from the original. A color, silhouette, ritual, or memory returns with a different context and suddenly feels current again. Novelty often begins with knowing what deserves to be remembered.
Expand
Field-Note-016
When does a local fashion brand become a city symbol?
A local object becomes a city symbol when people use it to recognize one another. A tote bag, cap, jacket, or restaurant shirt can become a small passport for belonging. The brand succeeds because it gives form to a feeling that already existed. It does not invent the city’s identity. It makes that identity visible enough to carry in public.
Expand
Field-Note-017
Which food trends are aesthetic, operational, economic, or identity-driven?
Food trends are rarely only about taste. A new café format, regional dish, wine bar, bakery, chef persona, or night-market hybrid can reveal changes in rent, tourism, labor, class, design, and aspiration. Restaurants give those forces a physical address. They are places where economics becomes visible, culture gets tested, and changing identities sit down at the same table.
Expand
Field-Note-018
What does a guest buy besides the meal?
A guest buys more than dinner. They also buy atmosphere, privacy, romance, rhythm, recognition, and sometimes a temporary version of themselves. The food matters, but the room begins speaking before the first plate arrives. Every restaurant quietly answers a question for the guest: who can I be here? The best ones make the answer feel natural.
Expand
Field-Note-019
What forms of discipline do founders accept without feeling constrained?
Founders rarely need less energy. They need containers that help energy travel farther. Vision, speed, charisma, and obsession can create momentum, but they can also create noise when nothing gives them sequence. Good support turns energy into cadence: clearer priorities, sharper GTM decisions, better milestones, and more useful updates. The challenge is to add structure without removing the sense of ownership that made the founder effective in the first place.
Expand
Field-Note-020
How much reasoning is post-purchase narrative?
The reasons people give for a purchase are not always the reasons that started it. Utility may be part of the story, but belonging, status, control, identity, or desire can arrive earlier and speak more quietly. Later, the rational mind finds language that sounds respectable. That does not make the customer dishonest. It makes buying human. Good strategy listens to both explanations.
Expand
Field-Note-021
Is practicality sometimes a shield against desire?
Practicality is often real. It can also protect us from naming what we want. A budget, schedule, or constraint may be completely valid while still sitting beside aspiration. People can know what they can justify and still imagine something beyond it. Markets often form in that tension, between the life someone can explain today and the life they are beginning to picture.
Expand
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■ HOW WE WORK TOGETHER
We work together as a partnership
We work together as a partnership
We work together as a partnership
A deep and trusting relationship dedicated to the journey you’re on and the ups and downs along the way. Coaching that’s holistic and three dimensional.
1
The ‘I’ dimension
The ‘I’ dimension
Find a way of leading that works for you. We focus on identifying what that looks like whilst maximising your time, energy, motivation, skills, and personal growth.
2
The ‘WE’ dimension
The ‘WE’ dimension
Enjoy thriving relationships with your board, co-founders, leadership team, wider company, friends and family.
3
The ‘IT’ dimension
The ‘IT’ dimension
Build the best version of the company you could imagine through strategy, structures, processes, and key decisions that shape your company’s growth at every stage.
■ MY FOUNDATIONS
What expertise do I bring?
What expertise do I bring?
What expertise do I bring?
As a coach
As a coach
I help founders translate ambition into durable habits, clearer decisions, and calmer leadership under pressure.
As a thought partner
As a thought partner
I’ve been in the trenches as an operator and advisor, helping ambitious teams keep their judgment sharp while the stakes rise.
As a depth partner
As a depth partner
I’m interested in the honest, hard work underneath growth: the beliefs, stories, relationships, and decisions shaping the company.
■ START THE CONVERSATION
Get in contact to set up a call
Get in contact to set up a call
Get in contact to set up a call
I’d love to connect and learn more about you. Send me an email and we’ll find a time that works.
I’d love to connect and learn more about you. Send me an email and we’ll find a time that works.
Email Michael
Michael Curnes
Michael Curnes
Michael Curnes